The First of Spring

This year, as part of a school assignment, I took pictures of the first signs of spring [and kind of carried way beyond the first signs]. Here's some of what I caught. (I had a hard time deciding which ones to post)


Cherry Blossoms

You can never see the shadow if you keep looking up. - peanutgallery007




Plum-tree Blossoms

"Believe in what your heart is saying, hear the melody that's playing, there's no time to waste. There's so much to celebrate; Believe in what you feel inside and give your dreams the wings to fly." - Rosey Unicorn




Grey (That's his name)

...eyelids divorced by electronic matchsticks-... -erratik_statik, Centrifuge



Dandelion

The story alive with image and verse -- Rosey Unicorn, Dance



Window, on the first thunderstorm of spring
The clouds will part, -- wisemann210, Magic in the Dark


Azalea, after the rain
Preserved with trace of antique rain. -- Hannah, Antique Rain



Little white blooms
A beautiful thing happened this night— OverEasy, Storm


Azalea
In my garden, flowers were like friends; -- Kitty15, Billy and the Flowers



Slug on a Dandelion
Frozen in time, gliding to the cold stone earth. -- PenguinAttack, Neverending Winter


Ivy
You bedazzled me! -- Eimear, Bedazzled



Azalea
Sparkling, glimmering, dreaming -- angels-symphony, Stars




Peach tree blossom

Pretty clouds of vivid colour float by -- Jiggity, Clouds.01



Bumblebee
This here below stays silent -- Conrad Rice, The Deconstruction of Fallen Stars


Plum tree blossoms
Were you wrong for looking back? -- Chevy, Everything but clear




Dandelions
When darkness falls into rays of sun-- Layleun, True Beauty



Blue flowers (Don't know the name)
she walks in the beauty of the sun,-- Areida, the tears that fall- the perfection of a woman in love




Plum tree blooms
Adorn my branches with the glimmer of hope -- Evi, Skies Descending



Mustard-green flowers
I tried to write about sunshine / But the rain stopped me short -- Caligulas Launderette, "It's the rainsong."



Purple flowers (no idea what they're called)
With soft feathers of desire,/a dream of us is flying, -- *writewatiwant* -- Lost memories


Forsythia in a hole
Midnight came around, its embrace was cold,-- Eraqio, Whistling the same ugly tune on a dimming summer's day.


Pine tree, silhouetted (after its branches had been so rudely cut)
Maybe there really are / blue skies./ Maybe there is hope.-- Bittersweet, Maybe Skies are Blue



Snail [A very rare thing; we don't commonly have snails in this part of NY]
Don't let the distance fool you, -- molmolk, smile for me



Azalea
There she stands-/ limbs embracing the sky,


Azaleas
I'm drinking my last hurricane. -- Mars, I'm drinking my last Hurricane


Teardrops
The sky is poetry; -- Adnamarine, Shooting stars


Pink azaleas
The clouds have started to cry again./Now that the sun has gone.-- happy-go-lucky



Dandelion
Everyone thinks I'm perfect -- Lin910, Perfection



Mushrooms (another rarity)
But the outside is frozen by merciless time, -- Aust, Fire Inside

This is beautiful, June.

I love the bumblebee and the Pink Azalea one with the rain drops. The mushrooms are awesome looking too. But all of them are gorgeous. I think it's so cool that you matched the pictures with Yewis works.

Ta,
Cal.

Hi June!

Shauni's here to review !

Let me say this before anything else:

You have a pretty aesome palet of photos.
The colours are really awesome!
How I love Macro photos....

You are s lucky that you can take pictures for scholl assigments, I had to write a poem... And I suck at poetry...

That little touch with the quotes of our writers s preety nice. Very caring and totally matched.

The Serious Review:

These are a lot of photos to revie, June! Lots o them, so I will just give you some tips to impromement and an overall of it.

Lots of the hotos are blurry. Macro picture is someting really hard to take but I bet you have a pretty awesome camera, no?
Maybe a Canon SLR...

The last dandelion flower isn't very good: first it's blurry, then it has a thing (maybe a stick or something...) tht distract us from the flower itself.

The last photo should be a bit more zoomed and the focus should be on the op of the first mushrroms. All that "action" that it's going out there, pushes oour sight away from the fist plan on the photo- the mushrooms.

Just some tings you might want to read:

Macro pictures, usually, want to focus in something. A flower, a bird, a detail in a monument or in a art piece. Really small things.
Something that I found a lot in your photos is that t's always something bothering my sight that could have not be there. Sometimes a shadow, or a stick, or a wall, or another thing that you could have noticed.

Peach tree blossom

The focus should habe been taken a bit more in the fisrt plan or you should have taken the phoo from a more hihger anguel to focus on the woolen yarns (?) of the flower.

Plum tree blossoms

It should be lighter and the main flower shuld be centered. You don't need to center all the flowers. Sometimes they look very odd if you do that. You zoomed so much to get the detail that the photo has to much "action".
In this case you could have done two things:

1) Or you zoom out and take the photo to the two flowers;
2) Zoom bit more, enter the flower, focus it and take it like that.

Mustard-green flowers

The right corner is too blank. As I said, maro picture wants to focus on something. All that space is distrating us and taking atention from the flower. Crop the right side a bit.

Forsythia in a hole

The most that I dislike the most.
Dark, blurry, with no concept.
June, you are capable of something much better! The other ones are an example!

Second Azalea

Blurry, the focus isn't in the right position. A little distractive but not that much.


Teardrops

I hate that black thing on the left side. It's so un-natural and it ruins the flow. If you only could take it only with sky behind it...


Pink azaleas

Should be centered This almost looks like a reflection, a simetric flower. That's way it should be centered, to give the idea od symetricness (if this wod even exists...)


Slug on a Dandelion

This one if very funny. The green and the brown in the back can be distraxcting because the colours are bright but it's also interesting...Almost lime a light/dark side in the photo!

First dandelion

It's so unique. It's like a second-phto-moment. It's very good!
I'm just thinking that you probably had a few seconds to take it and it's very good.
It's a bit blurry to be honest but not that important because it's action controls our sight!

*aplaudes for June*

My favorite one! Beautifully taken!

First Azelea

I hate that like stick! It's just making me furious...!!!!
Arg for it! It breaks the flow of the image...


OKay friend!

I reviewd alot of photies!
The ones that I didn't review are the ones that re good, pretty (but they all are...) but didn't caugh that much of my atention.

Keep up the good work!

I sense a very good grade on your assignment!

If you need any art/photo tip, just PM!

Best wishes

Shauni^^

Hi June!

Shauni's here to review !

Let me say this before anything else:

You have a pretty awesome pallet of photos.
The colours are really awesome!
How I love Macro photos....

You are s lucky that you can take pictures for school assignments, I had to write a poem... And I suck at poetry...

That little touch with the quotes of our writers s pretty nice. Very caring and totally matched.

The Serious Review:

These are a lot of photos to review, June! Lots o them, so I will just give you some tips to improvement and an overall of it.

Lots of the photos are blurry. Macro picture is something really hard to take but I bet you have a pretty awesome camera, no?
Maybe a Canon SLR...

The last dandelion flower isn't very good: first it's blurry, then it has a thing (maybe a stick or something...) that distract us from the flower itself.

The last photo should be a bit more zoomed and the focus should be on the op of the first mushrooms. All that "action" that it's going out there, pushes our sight away from the fist plan on the photo- the mushrooms.

Just some tings you might want to read:

Macro pictures, usually, want to focus in something. A flower, a bird, a detail in a monument or in a art piece. Really small things.
Something that I found a lot in your photos is that it's always something bothering my sight that could have not be there. Sometimes a shadow, or a stick, or a wall, or another thing that you could have noticed.

Peach tree blossom

The focus should have been taken a bit more in the first plan or you should have taken the photo from a more higher angle to focus on the woolen yarns (?) of the flower.

Plum tree blossoms

It should be lighter and the main flower should be centered. You don't need to center all the flowers. Sometimes they look very odd if you do that. You zoomed so much to get the detail that the photo has to much "action".
In this case you could have done two things:

1) Or you zoom out and take the photo to the two flowers;
2) Zoom bit more, enter the flower, focus it and take it like that.

Mustard-green flowers

The right corner is too blank. As I said, macro picture wants to focus on something. All that space is distracting us and taking attention from the flower. Crop the right side a bit.

Forsythia in a hole

The most that I dislike the most.
Dark, blurry, with no concept.
June, you are capable of something much better! The other ones are an example!

Second Azalea

Blurry, the focus isn't in the right position. A little distracting but not that much.

Teardrops

I hate that black thing on the left side. It's so unnatural and it ruins the flow. If you only could take it only with sky behind it...

Pink azaleas

Should be centered This almost looks like a reflection, a symmetric flower. That's way it should be centered, to give the idea of symetricness (if this word even exists...)


Slug on a Dandelion

This one if very funny. The green and the brown in the back can be distracting because the colours are bright but it's also interesting...Almost lime a light/dark side in the photo!

First dandelion

It's so unique. It's like a second-photo-moment. It's very good!
I'm just thinking that you probably had a few seconds to take it and it's very good.
It's a bit blurry to be honest but not that important because it's action controls our sight!

*applaudes for June*

My favorite one! Beautifully taken!

First Azalea

I hate that like stick! It's just making me furious...!!!!
Arg for it! It breaks the flow of the image...


OKay friend!

I reviewed a lot of photies!
The ones that I didn't review are the ones that re good, pretty (but they all are...) but didn't caught that much of my attention.

Keep up the good work!

I sense a very good grade on your assignment!

If you need any art/photo tip, just PM!

Best wishes

Shauni^^[b]

Ok here I am for some reviewing! As I told you on chat I will probably by pass some with like Amazing lol Because nothing else can be said about them xD

Here we go! On an epic photography review!

1 - Love it, love the light and the shadows working together, the detail and the colours in the background. Just amazing how you got both flowers in focus! Beautiful.

2 - I prefer the first one to this one. The flower on top if out of focus and it kid of distracts me and bugs my eye lol Plus I don't think the shadows and the light is as good on this photo.

3 - He looks...evil! haha This is a good photo, I love the light in the eyes, which is what I always insist upon when people take animal photos. I love how the fur and whiskers look in the light and I like how the background is blurred.

4 - Love this one! *steals* How you managed to get so close and how the seeds are dropping off and everything and I love the quote, like they are dancing. Just sort of added to the whole photo.

5 - Probably one of my favourites. I have to admit I tire of tons of flower photos lol But this is my kind of photo, I don't know why it's just really interesting to me. I would probably crop a bit off the bottom though, there is too much black there.

6 - I love the detail in this photo, love how clear the rain drops are and I love the colours! They are so vibrant, even the green in the background.

7 - I like the angle you took on this one. It makes it stand out against the other photos because it is like a birds eye view angle. Again the focus is brilliant and I love the greens.

8 - This one to me is one of the poorer ones. Yes the focus on the flower is amazing and you have the water droplets again but there is too much that is out of focus that is distracting to the eye. Like the stick or stem that is in the top left corner and all the foliage at the bottom. It is just really distracting and makes the frame look messy.

9 - Slug! I love how you have caught the slug on the flower, just minding it's own business. I like the contrast of the dull brown of the slug compared to the yellow of the flower. Yet somehow the colours don't seem as vibrant as in some of the other photos.

10 - Hmm, I think the focus on this one is off. I know for certain the top flower is out of focus but I think the bottom one is aswell. I think the camera focused on the leaves and the wall. If they hadn't have been out of focus this would have been an amazing photo because I really like the composition.

11 - I love the big fat water droplets on the petal, weighing it down. Hmm I just thought of a potential story idea or poem haha oh well. I think however the middle of the flower is out of focus but that doesn't really matter to me actually because my focus is those water droplets not the flower.

12 - I looooove the light on this one and I think the colours look amazing, contrasting against each other but somehow working together as well. I would have like it if more of it was in focus though, like the middle yellow bit (can't remember what you call it)

13 - Wow Wow Wow. Love the detail on this one! The proximity too the bee and the shine on it! Really great photo! And I love the all green background and how you managed to get the leaves it is perched on in focus.

14 - Hmm, I think because the light is so amazing in the first photo and other photos, that this one just kind of pales next to them. It is kind of dull in comparison. But it's in focus and there is still great detail.

15 - Love this one. Love seeing the detail of the flower and how you have composed it so that there is a blurred dandelion in the background. Without that sort of composition I would like this photo half as much.

16 - I really like this one but I just have this feeling that there is too much dead space left around the flower, however I do like the other blurred flowers in the background (dilemma) lol And I think I would have preferred it if there was just one flower on it's own in focus surrounded by out of focus flowers, then two that are in focus and overlapping each other.

17 - This one is like the first one! Great light, great vibrancy, great composition, great detail and focus.

18 - This one is cool. Again the lower angle makes it stand out from some of the other photos. I think I would crop the side a little, there is too much dead space there. But I like the mysterious shapes in the background and again the colour and the light.

19 - Hmm I don't like this one as much as some of the others. The flower is just sort of lost within the leaves and so it makes it look as though there is no clear focus for this photo. It just kind of makes it look like a messy frame. The detail is once again great though! I like being able to see the little...well hairs on the leaves lol

20 - I don't think you quite pulled this one off. Lovely composition, contrast of colours but the flower is out of focus.

21 - This one again is like the window one, really interesting to me. Kind of a good story prompter. But I'm not sure if it's a bit too black, that you lose some of the detail of the tree. I get that it is supposed to be a silhouette though and that's what happens when you take a silhouette photo lol

22 - Amazing! Great detail, great colours. I love how you did the composition so that there is a little bit of the bottom of a plant pot there. That sort of makes the photo for me. I know it sounds rather odd but if you had not had that edge of the plant pot, then it would just be a snail. But that plant pot adds dimension, adds a setting, a sense of space. Bravo!

23 - Again, love the vibrant colours the detail and I like the composition too, how you set it off the once side. However the blurry right edge of the photo kind of bothers my eye.

24 - Hmm this seems like a bit of a messy frame to me. I think there are too many flowers in this photo and it kind of makes the composition boring and like a normal photo that someone would take when they were gardening or something. Again though great colours and light and detail.

25 - I really like this one, the low angle and the blue sky behind the flowers. The flowers themselves are amazing and it doesn't matter that some are out of focus. It's really good this one.

26 - Love it! Love how you captured the two flowers, the raindrops. They sort of almost look said because they got rained on and are now weighed down with the extra burden of carrying water droplets.

27 - I love how close you are in this one. I feel like a fairy perched on a petal in this photo. It is really good! The colour of the flower is amazing but I like how you didn't take up the whole frame with the flower, you left room for some green to creep in. And it's kind of weird because the stem on the top right in this photo doesn't bother me as much as the other one did lol I think because your eye is drawn directly to the centre of the flower.

28 - I really love this one. How you did the composition so that you can see the mushrooms in focus in the foreground but then it tails off into blurriness in the background. The detail on the mushrooms is amazing, I love how slick and shiney they look and how small they look in the way that you framed it.

Ok...Whoo! Epic photography review over! haha I'm not going to read back through this xD so sorry for any spelling mistakes haha

Well Done June! I really loved some of these!

Bex x

Juney, I'm not an expert on photography, but I think you did a good job on the pictures. Most of them are of small things that are probably harder to get a good picture of. This were beautiful.
~peanut~

June, I cannot pass up a review during Purps vs. Blues! xD

And for time's sake, I shall only comment on pictures I'm not too fond of.

Slug on a Dandelion: It's just not beautiful. The wilted dandelion is just that, wilted, and the slug. *Shudders* I'm not fond of slugs.

Blue Flowers: The focus feels a bit off, here. I'd crop the top inch of the picture and focus on the flowers in the foreground.

Azalea (Hot pink): I find it's too close to the edge of the picture. Cutting part of any flower is not something I'm fond of. I find this could have been better with the whole flower in the frame.

General Comments: I'd watch your exposures on these pictures in general. Some of them feel too washed-out from brightness and others feel too dark. It detracts from a lot of the flowers.

I'd also watch cutting too much of the flower from the picture. That could be my tastes again, but when a flower is too small or too big in the frame I feel it takes away more then it gives.

I loved the quotes from YWSers above each flower. They seemed to fit perfectly.

Nice work!

~Rosey

Oh, June, dear! I'm sorry I can't give you a helpful or detailed review, since I suck at reviewing art, but I will tell you that I loved these!
These pictures are beautiful, even wonderful!
Ohhhh *looks proud* you quoted me! *hugs June* The picture is perfect for that line

*Kat*

Before I start, I have to say: amazing photography here June!!! I love all the colours and different flowers you have got in this selection, the quoates are a nice touch too! As I said to you, this review is probably going to be awful as I have never reviewed photography before...but here goes anyway!!!

No. 1 - Amazing! I don't know what else I can say!!
No. 2 - Very pretty! However, maybe you could improve it by making it a bit lighter, at the moment it's slightly shadowed?
No. 4 - My favourite!!! I love the detail it really highlights the delicateness of the dandelion
No. 5 - A great contrast from the others and an awesome idea to put it in with the others! The only thing I would do to change this would be to maybe soom in a little on the window to get some more detail
No. 6 - I don't really have any improvements for you for this one but I had to tell you how cool the droplets look on it!!!!
No. 9 - The prettiest slug ever! Some really nice detail on it's body.
No. 12 - Nice detail here the colour has come out really well. The only improvement I would make to it is the slight blur at the bottom of the flower.
No. 13 - Really good detail in this one - especially the wings of the bee.
No. 15 - The colour of the dandelions is awesome!! Again, it's come out really well - however maybe a bit more detail is needed on the furthest one?
No. 18 - Stunning!
No. 21 - I love this one! Beautiful!
No. 22 - Like the slug, I've never seen a snail look so pretty! Also fairly cute...whoa..never thought I'd say that about a snail O.o
No. 27 - Again, the colour of this dandelion is amazing and well focused, the only thing I would improve would be the darkness towards the bottom of the photo - but that might be just me

In conclusion - I am jealous of your photography Keep up your incredible work!!

Happy

P.S. my apologies for the awful review

Ok, I'm not really sure on how to review on pictures, but I will do the best I can do.

1. This one was nice, I didn't really see any problems with it. Nice lighting.

2. This picture is nice too, but I think I see more of the flower on the right. With this picture you should of moved over about foot and get the rest of the flower.

3. I have one word for this picture: Kitty!!

4. I like the close up of the dandelion.

5. This is picture is like, wow a window and trees. I know it's supposed to be have rain, but I don't see it. Rain picture is better taken outside or where you can it actually see that it's raining.

6. An excellent picture.

7. My personal opinion on this picture is, so what. It doesn't spike my intrest any.

8. Could've been better if you moved the stick.

9. Sluggy

10. I know it's a picture of ivy, but it could be better if you moved it over a tad to the left to catch more of the flowers.

11. It's ok.

12. Again, more to the left.

13. Buggy.

14. It's good.

15. It's nice picture, but I think it would be nice if the flower in the back was clearer.

16. Again, could be better if the background was clearer.

17. Tad more to the right.

18. This picture is good to blur the background in.

19. A hairy plant.

20. Nice picture.

21. Nice, the fence with the hole in it adds to the effect you're in some rural area.

22. Snaily

23. Another good picture with the right part focused and the right part blurred.

24. Maybe you should've moved back to capture more flowers.

25. I'm not sure if this picture is on its side or what.

26. Neat.

27. Back up about an inch.

28. Mushrooms disgust me, but it's a nice picture anyways.

All of them are nice picture, and the poems that some fellow YWSians wrote were nice too.

June,

Um. Wow. Since there are like a million pictures here, I won't go through all of them, but I'll point out a few that I think are exceptional, or that could use a little bit of work. I mean, I never understood why people would critique a photo. It's not like you can go back and retake that exact same photo. But then I realized that a critique on a photo is like telling you what to do better next time. If you didn't know that, there you go. If you did, I'm sounding like a broken record. I'm telling this more to myself than you---

ANYWAY.

Dandelion is my favorite out of this collection. I think it's one of the best photos I've ever seen. I love the way that the dandelion is larger than the actual photo. It reminds me of how big the world is, and how small I seem compared to it.

Someone mentioned that Slug on a Dandelion wasn't a very pretty picture. I agree, but differently. I think it it's absolutely gorgeous, because we are just looking at the bug, and not really focusing on what's actually happening. Spring is a gorgeous time, and we shouldn't look at the gross slugs, but rather what's around it. That's why I kinda like and dislike this picture. And it's not centered, which kind of bugged me.

Blue Flowers could be a lot prettier if it was more in focus. It's kind of blurry. It's like you're trying to focus on the flower in the middle, but you don't quite get there, and you snapped it too early. Only about half of it is centered. I don't like how everything around it seems really blurry either. It distracts from the overall picture.

I love the Mushroom picture at the end. I love the earthy, dirty tones that it gives off. It makes me stare in wonder. It's amazing.

June, I can't believe you. These were absolutely gorgeous. Please continue taking pictures. I'll love you forever if you do!

-Jared

Wow Juniper.

You never cease to amaze me.

I loved the snail, the bee, the window, the dark tree the most.

And the dandelion was my absolute favourite, the close up is beauitiful, I think I will hijack it, beauty terrorist that I am, for my background. To replace one of Shinigamizm's.

The dark tree was a beautiful picture, but it didn't seem very springy, which makes for a loveley contrast, in that nothing in this world can be generalised... magic.

And the slug for the same reason: it is not a beautiful photo: from the angle taken the slug (great word btw) looks like a blemish on the flower. But this is beautiful for the contrast it shows again, because stereotypes have not been tracked and followed like a criminal.

I love your work

Wow I love it. Where can I find and get your work no joke, It is amazing how beautiful something is when it is up that close. Try to do more shots of the same thing but from different angles it will give you more varity. I love they way they house shots expressed different things. let me know how much the pictures cost and whre I can get them.

Wow.
I'd like to say "this one's my favorite!" but I honestly can't choose! They're all so beautiful, no word of a lie. I know that one of the rules of reviews is not to do this, but I honestly can't find anything wrong with any of your pictures.
You have so much talent, so much potential. Excellent job. You're going places in life, June.
- fragile_heart(!)

I could go and give a detailed opinion on each one but they would all say the same thing: “These pictures are awesome.” I mean sure, some catch the attention a little more then others and some are more striking but that doesn’t matter here because these all totally rock.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I loved the little quotes at the top of each. I’ve read a lot of the pieces that these quotes come from so it made everything more relatable.